The European Arrest Warrant (Application to Third Countries and Amendment) and Extradition (Amendment) Bill 2011 has completed its passage through the Oireachtas. It will come into effect once signed into law by the President.
Speaking about the Bill following it being passed by both Houses Minister Shatter said “The main purpose of the Act is to enable the provisions of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) Act 2003 to be extended to non-EU countries. The EAW Act gave effect to the EU Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant. It replaced extradition arrangements between EU Member States which were, by and large, conducted on a Government to Government basis with a system of surrender based on arrest warrants issued and executed by judicial authorities. The Act provides that the provisions of the EAW Act can be extended to a third state where there is an agreement between the European Union and that state on surrender.”
The measure also makes procedural and technical amendments to the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, many of which arise from court judgments or experience of the operation of the arrest warrant system. In addition, it makes some changes, also of a procedural or technical kind, to the Extradition Acts 1965 – 2001.
Concluding the Minister said “These amendments to the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 are the third set of changes to that Act in less than ten years. Although these amendments are necessary to enable Ireland to carry out its international obligations in relation to surrender I consider this piecemeal approach to be unsatisfactory. I have therefore announced that I will initiate a fundamental review of the European Arrest Warrant legislation to see how it can be simplified and streamlined.”
18 July 2012
Note to Editors
Since the EAW system came into force in 2004, the number of EAWs received in and issued by Ireland has increased year on year.
Up to 31 December 2011, 601 orders for surrender have been executed by Ireland since the EAW Act came into operation (1 January 2004). In the same period, 184 persons have been surrendered to Ireland.
In an annual report on the operation of the EAW for 2011 which the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr Alan Shatter T.D., laid before the House recently. It showed that Ireland issued 71 warrants in 2011, up from 51 in 2010, and 36 persons were surrendered to Ireland during the year, up from 26 the previous year. Of these, 31 were surrendered by the UK with the balance being surrendered by five other Member States.
It also shows that Ireland received 384 warrants in 2011, up from 373 in 2010 and that 177 orders for surrender were executed in 2011 – up from 161 in 2010. Of those orders, 113 were made on foot of warrants received from Poland, 19 from the UK, the balance from 13 other Member States.
The offences cited in the warrants included murder, sexual offences, drugs offences, trafficking, assault, robbery and fraud.